Turkey sacks 4,500 government personnel for links to failed coup bid

As per a decree issued by the Turkish government, 4,464 more civil servants have lost their jobs. The government suspects these people to have links with last year’s failed coup bid, which is why they have now been fired. The official order issued by the Turkish government states that a total of 4,464 people have been fired, which includes 2,585 employees of the education ministry, 893 members of the gendarmerie and 88 workers at the public television channel TRT. The list of people fired also includes 330 academics who were members of the Higher Council for Teaching (YOK), including a prominent expert on constitutional law, Ibrahim Kaboglu.

It may be recalled that before this latest sacking order, nearly 100,000 people have already been fired or suspended for their links with last year’s failed coup attempt. Also, more than 41,000 people have been arrested since the last year. All of these are part of the government sponsored purge, which seeks to punish everyone who may have been involved in last year’s coup attempt. Such decisions have received widespread criticism from the European Union and human rights activists. Experts said that the Turkish government was punishing people just on suspicion, which is a gross violation of human rights.